Part of a controversial development at Deptford Bridge could still be approved by Greenwich councillors next week – even though their counterparts in Lewisham have thrown out their side of the scheme.
The developer RER London wants to build 802 homes on the Lewisham College site, which straddles Deptford Creek and the borough boundary. A 30-storey block would be built on the Lewisham side while the tallest building on the Greenwich side would be 19 storeys.
Each council is dealing with its side of the scheme as a separate application, and last month both were due to make decisions on the same evening.
Greenwich’s planning board – who had been urged to approve the scheme by their planning officers – voted to defer a decision after Lewisham Council officers recommended to their councillors that it be rejected because of the size and bulk of the blocks, and their impact on nearby heritage sites.
In the end, Lewisham’s strategic development committee did reject the scheme, adding concern over the impact on houseboats moored in the creek to the reasons for refusal.
However, Lewisham’s decision will now go to London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan. He could call the scheme in to decide himself. If the mayor does not, then it goes to Angela Rayner, the communities secretary, who has the same power. If neither Khan nor Rayner call it in, meaning Lewisham can formally refuse the scheme, then RER is likely to appeal.
In Greenwich, the planning board meets again on October 13, and its councillors are still being urged to approve the scheme.
“If neither the mayor of London nor the secretary of state intervenes, Lewisham would then be in a position to issue its formal refusal,” Greenwich officers say in a report to councillors.
“The applicant would thereafter have a statutory right of appeal against that decision. Officers understand that, in the event that a refusal is issued, the applicant intends to exercise that right. Accordingly, while Lewisham members have resolved to refuse the application, the ultimate planning outcome for the Lewisham element of the wider development remains unresolved.”
A key concern for Greenwich’s chair of planning, Jeremy Fraser, was that the only access route for vehicles is from Deptford Church Street, which is on the rejected Lewisham side.
Greenwich’s officers say a clause can be included to say that if the Lewisham application is formally refused, or if an appeal is refused or withdrawn, then Greenwich will refuse the application too.
Across the whole scheme, only 3 per cent of the homes would be legally defined as “affordable”, but neither Greenwich nor Lewisham officers have raised this as a reason to reject the scheme, saying that a viability assessment shows the developer cannot afford any more.
RER London says its scheme, called Deptford Reach, will open up access to that part opf the creek for the first time in more than a century: the site had been a flour mill before what became Lewisham College was built in the 1970s.
But the Creekside Educational Trust criticised the project at the Lewisham meeting last month, saying that the scheme treated the waterway as a “constraint to be managed” and called for measures to help restore nature in the creek.
Greenwich’s planning board will discuss the scheme on October 13.
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